In the latest update to Bloomberg’s “Electric Vehicle Outlook,” forecasters say the world will never buy as many traditional gas-powered cars and trucks as we did in 2017. While gas cars will continue to make up more than half of global auto sales for years ahead, gas cars have already peaked – and EVs will now take over.
The new car market in the UK went off a cliff in April, plummeting 97.3%. Only 4,321 new cars were registered in April. In this highly unusual situation, 31.8% of sales were battery-electric vehicles.
EV sales were forecast to grow by about 35% in Europe this year, as the EU implements more stringent rules on CO2 emissions. Those forecasts correctly identified the direction of electric-vehicle sales. But based on January sales numbers in Germany, the continent’s largest car market, we could see much bigger gains compared to a year ago.
BEV sales in Germany last month were up 61%, and plug-in hybrids shot up 307%. That’s in a German car market that saw a 7.3% reduction in overall car registrations year-over-year.
As of last month, the U.S. is officially half way to the Department of Energy’s goal to have 1 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads. That goal was first set for 2015, but we are now obviously nowhere near the level and a year late.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz set 2020 as the new goal for the 1 million mark and with the recent sales numbers, it looks like it shouldn’t be a problem. Expand
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